There are a few brands that get a lot of attention when they change their logo.

The first one that comes to my mind is Pepsi. You may have other examples.

Some people think that when companies change a logo, it’s meaningless. We marketers call those people soulless. There’s nothing we can do to help them….or their pocket protectors. 😉

When the big TV networks’ logos change, it’s still a big deal. While the big 5 networks (ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and PBS) themselves seem to be losing the cultural influence they once had, due to the preponderance of programming choices from streaming sources…broadcast TV networks still get a ton of viewers.

So PBS (the Public Broadcasting Service) changing its logo this week on the eve of its 50th anniversary is worth noting from a branding and marketing perspective. PBS’s programming remains unique in many areas because it offers so much content not found on commercial or cable services. It is also a vital brand to over 300 PBS affiliates around the country.

So let’s take a look at what PBS did.

Right off the bat, the new PBS logo is blue. But not just ANY blue. That’s PBS Blue. Corporations, like PBS, love to stroke their corporate egos by creating a unique color and making up words about what that blue signifies.

You know what PBS Blue signifies? BLUE! Sheeesh! Next item.

For perspective purposes, I should let you know that the circles (aka “the shield”) on the old and new logos are pretty much the same size. That might give you some clues to the changes.

Within the circle (or shield) the heads in the new blue logo are bigger…not a bad move in the digital age. And while it may look like PBS didn’t really change the heads on the shield that much…they actually did.

The “neck” is shorter in the new logo, the noses are slightly less pointed and (in a part I find hysterical, given the brand) the noses are slightly raised.

Also bigger (quite obviously) is the PBS wordmark. I think bigger is better for this logo. It’s designed in a sans-serif font that was (here we go again) custom designed for PBS and is know as PBS Sans typeface.

If you’re thinking it looks very similar to about 3 or 4 fonts from your Microsoft Word font catalogue, you’ll get no argument from me. Those are your tax dollars at work, folks.

The final word? It’s a nice redesign and better than the old logo (although I thought the PBS logo of 1984 was pretty classic – see the video link below). I think if I was custom designing a font, I could have crafted something more visually interesting then what they ended up with…but they didn’t ask me now, did they? 🙂

WATCH THIS if you want to see a cool video on the history of the PBS logo.

Tags: branding, broadcasting, commentary, logo design, marketing by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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With the announcement on November 17 that Entercom Communications Corp. (“Entercom”) (NYSE: ETM) had completed its with CBS Radio Inc. (“CBS Radio”), the Pennsylvania-based media and entertainment company now boasts 235 radio stations in most of the biggest markets in the country. These include historic stations like WCBS AM/FM & WINS-AM in New York, KROQ-FM in Los Angeles and WBBM AM/FM in Chicago.

So with all these new stations, Entercom decided it needed to tweak it’s branding, in part, by redesigning its logo.

Gone is the stylized small “e” in the diamond and the all caps, italicized word mark, replaced by a diamond-less small “e” and a very basic sans-serif in upper and lower case. Purple is the main color now.

So what does this all mean?

Well in the grand scheme of things, not much. Except I think Entercom is changing its branding message.

Prior to the CBS merger, it feels to me like the old logo was saying “we’re a player, we’re a company that’s working to be a truly major player in media, specifically radio.”

Now, with all of these major new stations, totaling a whopping 235 radio stations across America, the simpler – actually more boring logo in my opinion, says “we ARE a player and we don’t have to shout from the roof tops…if you’re advertising in radio, you’re going to need (not want) to speak with us.”

Finally, just for some perspective, your gentle writer remembers (and worked in radio when) a broadcast ownership group could only have 7 AM stations, 7 FM stations and 7 TV stations…total! Times have changed and change is scary.

Tags: advertising, branding, logo design, marketing, radio by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Over the weekend, audio producer Brad Newman was evidently looking at all the business cards he collected at FaffCon 9.

He saw that I had not one but two new business card designs.

He posted a picture on social media and it started a discussion because folks had questions. Why the two cards? Why the different designs? Why didn’t Minnesota beat the Yankees in the wild card series? Lots of questions.

So I thought I would do a quick overview on the two cards which will also bring you up to speed on my marketing changes (if you’re some kind of marketing stalker).

OLD CARD

• The relatively cheaper old cards were crafted while I was trying to get some new, fancier cards made
• My original goal was to update all my voiceover branding since I moved to North Carolina; I would adopt the dark blue light blue scheme that was a tip of the hat to the University of North Carolina’s color scheme (not exactly like theirs but in the family)
• I also had a graphic idea for really highlighting the phrase “Voice Over Talent” and explaining the type of work that involves (because I’ve had to continuously explain what a voiceover does for 35+ years)
• I was trying to do a plastic card, as I had done before with cards I did while in Buffalo, but my old vendor screwed up the new blue design TWICE and after that, he got fired
• You’d be surprised at what a complete pain in the butt it is to try and RGB and PMS color match light blues – ridiculous
• For the old cards, I found a vendor who did the thick paper cards who also painted the sides
• He could not do a PMS color do I got stuck with that crazy bright blue
• The weight of the card was really nice as was the painted edge
• As nobody else was going to be as bothered by the color situation on the old card as I was…I lived with that old card for a while

As time went on, I knew I wasn’t happy with the old card and, even more so, with the word mark itself which I felt needed help.

As much as I liked the word mark font on the old card, the full word mark did not make the brand name (which happens to be my name) stand out. I wanted a font for the brand name that looked personalized, which would then be supported by the tag line in that font I used on the old word mark.

I could have tried actually printing my name and making that part of the logo, except my printing Sucks with a capital S.

So I look at thousands (truly thousands) of hand script fonts that conveyed friendly, fun and masculine.

Trying to find a masculine looking hand script font that also doesn’t look like it was written by some kind of angry demon is not as easy as you’d think.

Remember, I was trying to convey friendly to support the tag line “Your Friendly, Neighborhood Voiceover Talent”. Worse some of the “male” based script font sure looked awfully girly to me and many of my voiceover peers, whose opinions I sought throughout this process.

Two things then happened kind of simultaneously. I found the font I really liked for the brand and I found a new vendor for printing the plastic cards. It would look good but it would not be cheap.

NEW CARD

• Working with the new brand font and old tagline font within the blues color scheme, my designer came up with the logo idea of making everything flush right…I thought it worked really well, so I carried that thought through on the front of the business card where everything is flush right
• I tried to make the font sizes bigger….small font size may be cool but readability is where it’s at for business cards and my eyes are getting old – bigger font size and a bit bolder
• My designer also PATIENTLY helped me narrow down my PMS color choices…she deserves combat pay for babysitting me through that debacle
• I really liked the way the back of the card (all dark blue with white VOICE OVER TALENT) worked on the old card so kept it on the back of the new card
• The card size as you may have noticed is bigger than the old card…it is credit card size
• I added a clear coating on all the front and on the white VOICE OVER TALENT…really makes a nice impact

So then why did I bring two sets of cards to FaffCon? Well I didn’t really. I brought mostly the old cards to distribute because I wanted to get rid of them and my peers aren’t likely to be as impacted by my card design as real prospects. I handed out a few of the (expensive) new ones to a few Faffers.

Now you know more about my business cards than you ever wanted to…hope this helps.

Tags: advertising, branding, commentary, logo design, marketing by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Let me be clear, I really like the city of San Diego. I would consider living there if only the city was not in the state of California.

As far as football, this week they announced they are leaving San Diego and going to live in Los Angeles. Oh well, that’s sports.

But with a new city comes a new logo and that’s where I become interested. Don’t get me wrong, I like sports. But logos, I really like.

As I have noted here before, team like the Los Angeles Rams can really botch a logo opportunity. Badly.

Well in just a few days, the Chargers of Los Angeles have quickly botched their new logo opportunity as well.

The logo roll out gives you a pretty fair indication of what kind of operational chaos the Chargers of (pick any city in California, I guess) are in.

Now, to begin with, the Chargers, late of San Diego, seem to me to have lost a bet when it came to logos and colors. Certainly, they didn’t have as bad a situation of it as the Cleveland Browns, but logo and word mark wise, the Chargers could certainly do better with the move to LA and a new icon.

The logo roll out (such as it was) gives you a pretty fair indication of what kind of operational chaos the Chargers of (pick any city in California, I guess) are in.

The first logo (LA on the left) was, I’m pretty sure, designed on Fiver as it looked like an amateurish mating of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Tampa Bay Lightning.

I wasn’t the only one who caught that (the internet had a blast with it).

Then, for reasons that I perceive as panic driven because of the poor reception given the Los Angeles Chargers “Fiver Logo”, the team went back to their horrible word mark with yellow/goldish lettering on a light blue background about 24 hours later. They must have called the “braintrust” at the Los Angeles Rams for advice and were told, go back to your old imagery and just change the city name.

Then to add insult to injury, the LA Chargers went and hired a coach from the Buffalo Bills to be their new head coach. Who hires anybody from the recent Bills staff and hopes to win anything? Oh yeah, Jacksonville. Oy!

So between this logo fiasco (and I expect it to continue) and the coaching choice, don’t expect season ticket sales to go through the roof next season for the Chargers.

In other sports news, the Oakland Raiders (it seems) will be moving to Las Vegas in a few years. Hope their new logo is better than the horribleness that is the name, branding and worst of all colors for the Las Vegas Golden Knights. Ick!

Tags: branding, commentary, logo design, marketing by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Look at that.

The NFL’s St. Louis Rams are being hauled back to Los Angeles. The 2,000 or so old Los Angeles Rams fans from the original are very excited.

The millions of other Los Angelinos couldn’t give a ram’s ass. The reason?

It’s GOT to be the logo.

I only noticed it tonight after the NFL draft started (probably like thousands of others). Really, Los Angeles? Really?!

Bad enough the team got stuck with a crappy name like the Rams (only one worse would be The Bills). But to get a second chance at life in LA, having been stuck with questionable team colors (once yellow and blue now pukish gold and dark blue) you would think some great LA designer would have at the new logo and give it LA style.

No.

They are staying with the Rams name for heritage sake (again, WHAT heritage?!) and they took the old word mark and just slapped “Los Angeles” on it.

WTH?!

And who the heck is going to be scared of this Ram? Look at it! Oooo, I’m shaking.

This should be the logo of a Single A baseball team with a color-blind graphic designer, not an NFL franchise.

CFL maybe but not NFL.

Who wants to wear that stupid looking ram on a baseball cap or sweatshirt?

No the Rams will NOT be leading the NFL Merchandise sales in 2016.

They had a great branding opportunity and they blew it. New (kinda) city, new (kinda) team with a new (not really) logo.

If they win the Super Bowl, no one will care about the logo I guess. But nobody cares about the logo now either.

Tags: commentary, logo design, marketing by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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This is a conundrum.

On the one hand, as a Buffalo Sabres fan, I shouldn’t even HAVE a Toronto Maple Leafs logo on this web site. It is sacrilege.

On the other hand, the possible switch of one of the more famous logos in the NHL interests the heck outta me.

So Go Leafs Go!

In spite of not having won a Stanley Cup in many years (like many, many years) it is still one of the most famous teams in hockey. It was the city I saw my first NHL game in at the old Maple Leaf Garden.

It is said that in honor of the team’s 100th Anniversary next year, their will be a new logo (and one assumes uniforms as well).

The logo is famous but I would not call it iconic. It’s not as ugly as, say, the New Jersey Devils logo. Simple as it is, I find the Maple Leaf logo attractive but certainly with room for improvement.

There has been no official logo redesigned yet but the talk of a new Maple Leafs logo has the sports graphic design world (mostly amateurs at this point, I believe) frothing at the mouth. Understandable, as it’s an exciting proposition.

There are a lot of ideas out there but one early logo I’ve seen really shows promise. The designer is Matt McElroy. It retains the simplicity of the original mark, the colors (which any would be crazy to change) and adds a kind of simple strength to me.

Toronto Maple Leafs Logo Concept By Matt McElroy Number9Concepts All Rights Reserved

It takes a well know international hockey mark (the blue maple leaf) and adds a simply, strong “T” to a new logo that everyone in the NHL (and probably the world hockey community) would know instantly.

Toronto Maple Leafs Uniform Concept By Matt McElroy Number9Concepts All Rights Reserved

Do I think this will be the winning design? I don’t know. I’m pretty sure that logo race is just getting started and some big logo design houses (hopefully not just uniform makers, oy!) will get in on the race.

This should be a lot of fun.

Tags: branding, logo design, marketing by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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